News & Alerts

Earth Day 2013: Take Action with NEAVS

Did you know that helping animals in labs also helps the environment? In addition to the suffering and bad science resulting from animal use, NEAVS asks you give thought to the tons of dead bodies disposed every year by biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Labeled “biological waste,” let’s never forget they were all once living, thinking, and feeling animals whose short lives were cruelly sacrificed to ineffective science and indefensible ethics. To help the Earth, her animals, and humans, here are three things you can do.

Support alternatives to animal testing: Toxicity and product testing uses living animals to test hazardous substances. Tests such as those for acute toxicity slowly poisons them with more and more doses of a substance – all without any relief for their pain and suffering. Those who do not die are killed at the end. Millions of bodies, many of which are considered pathogenic or hazardous waste, must be disposed – ending up in our water, soil, and air. Call 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332) or email the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and ask them to require alternatives and stop permitting archaic animal-based testing.

Go cruelty-free product shopping: Cruelty-free products – as well as the processes by which they are produced – are more environmentally friendly than those tested on animals, less likely to contain harmful chemicals, more likely to use natural substances, and safer for you, the Earth, and the animals. Email or visit our Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmeticspage for free Leaping Bunny cruelty-free shopping guides and apps.

Support alternatives in education: Many animals are taken from natural habitats and used for dissection, contributing to the depletion of species diversity and ecosystem imbalance. Preserving and discarding specimens carries environmental risks. Toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde, identified as a carcinogen and designated a hazardous air and water pollutant, are used to preserve. The toxic waste generated by specimen dissection is dangerous for students, teachers, the public, and the Earth (read more). Call your local schools to make certain students can choose cruelty-free alternatives to specimen dissection.